a.) According to the peer review I might need to fix some grammar mistakes and elaborate a little more with some of my topic sentences.

b.) As far as my editing checklist goes, I don’t think I need to add anything to it. Everything on my checklist are still things that I have to work on and my peers notice it while they are editing my essay. So I am going to just keep working on the things that I struggle with to help improve my essay.

c.) I will work on this probably on Sunday. Sundays are my homework days and I get everything finished and ready for the week. My plan for completing the final draft by this Tuesday is like I said to work on it this Sunday and look over everything my peers said and make the changes if needed. After I do that I should have the my essay finished and ready to go.

https://docs.google.com/a/odu.edu/document/d/1eQfylU5__yBrzgWA9Kvgq-IyNGbj7Vd3UEIsPhR8R1Y/edit?usp=sharing

a.) The most helpful part of this course so far for me has been the feedback during peer review. Getting the feedback from my classmates and teacher have really helped me with my writing. I think my writing has definitely improved as we write each essay. Something else that has been helpful to me in this course is practicing thesis statements and learning how to make our thesis statement clear in our essays.

b.) Although my writing has been improving I could still use some practice in other areas. Sentence structure and run on sentences still give me a hard time. Run on sentences are hard sometimes because, I want to complete my thought and I don’t know wether to put a comma or semi colon.

c.) To further my skills, in class if we keep reviewing grammar and sentence structure I think I will keep getting better with my writing. The more practice I have the better I will do. Practice makes perfect. Outside of class, things I could do to further my skills would just to be to practice on my own. Practicing the things I have the most trouble with on my own might help me also. Reading over my notes and the reading assignments we are given will also help me improve.

a.) My plan for my checklist did help me a bit. I planned to plan out my essay before writing it. I couldn’t spend to much time on that because it was a timed exam so I felt a little bit rushed. I took my exam on the second floor of the library just like I had planned to and that really helped because it was a very quiet environment for me to really concentrate on my writing. I did not use my editing checklist on the midterm. I did think about the things I wrote up there and tried to avoid making those mistakes.

b.) As far as the final, some changes I would make to my testing plan is definitely use my editing checklist while I’m taking the exam so I know exactly what to avoid while I’m writing. Also I want to try to spend a little bit of time to plan out my thesis and topic sentences a little better so it will be easier for me to write the essay.

c.) For me the difference between timed essays and untimed essays is that with timed essays I definitely feel rushed to finish my essay. I feel like I don’t have time to plan things out that well so I can insure I have a well written essay. With untimed essay you can plan out everything before you write and you have time to go back and proof read everything before you turn it in. I definitely do better on untimed essays than I do on timed essays. On timed essays I don’t think there is a way to prepare because you don’t know what the prompt is until you start and you can’t spend too much time planning it out because you have to have enough time to write it. For the untimed essays, to prepare I do a complete outline so when I go to write my essay its pretty much already written I just have to put it together. I prefer untimed essays over timed essays.

a.) To ensure success on my writing midterm by going to the library and sitting in a quiet area to focus on my midterm. I will stay focused by not being distracted by other things like my phone or other people that are around me. As far as using my time effectively, i will take some of them time to think of and outline my thesis and topic sentences so when I have to actually write it my paper will already be pretty much complete. Then I will have to just fill in the rest of the essay. To prepare for the essay, eating before I take the midterm is something I definitely will do because if I don’t I will not be able to concentrate, all I will be thinking about is my hunger if I don’t. Also a part of being prepared I will go over previous essays and things we have gone over in class to help me better prepare for the midterm.

b.) I will use my editing checklist to go over my essay when I am done to check for any mistakes so I can fix them and better my chances if getting a good grade. I don’t think my checklist needs to be updating because everything that is up there are still the same things I need to work on in my writings. From chapter 5, something that stood out the most to me and I will use is the proofreading and rereading my paper and listening to the flow to see if it actually sounds good. I usually just skim through my essays and really read and listen to the way it sounds. I will definitely be doing that during my midterm.

My thesis statement: ODU should have cancelled school on Wednesday because not everyone lives on or near campus, some students have a long commute to school, and the roads where some commuters live aren’t clear.

Topic sentence #1 One reason they should have cancelled school is because a lot of students actually commute to school and don’t live close to school.

Topic sentence #2 A second reason that they should have cancelled school is because there are commuters that commute from far away to get to school.

Topic sentence #3 A third reason that they should have cancelled school is because depending on where students commute from their roads/neighborhoods are not a priority for VDOT to clean right away.

Through essay number two I learned more in depth about my learning style and how I learn as a visual learner. In college I use my learning style all the time, when I’m taking notes and listening to my teachers during their lectures. As far as using my learning style while writing this essay I didn’t really use it while writing my essay. When I write, I just jump full force into my assignment and don’t think about anything except just getting it done. Writing papers has never been easy for me so I wouldn’t say my learning style helped me or made my writing easy. As far as difficulty, like I said previously writing has always been a struggle. So in a sense I would say my learning style didn’t help me but it didn’t hurt me either. Now it may have made it a little difficult because I don’t know how a being a visual learner can help me when it comes to writing like it helps me in other classes. My learning style I feel would benefit me better in a class that’s not based around just writing so then I could apply to different assignments or activities. Although, in the process of writing this essay it did teach me more about my learning style and how I should apply being a visual learner in my classes.

https://docs.google.com/a/odu.edu/document/d/1VO_Ack67RGcWq79Z6oqhMLoNlU0_j0ePMvCQdQyyOKQ/edit?usp=sharing

a.) Editing Checklist: grammatical errors, run on sentences, linking independent clauses, and sentence structure, thesis statements

b.) To improve in these areas I should go back over my papers more and pay close attention to what I wrote. I could probably use a little more practice with independent clauses and dependent clauses. Working longer and taking my time on my papers will definitely help me to improve so I can limit my mistakes on my essay. Also organizing before I write my paper and making an outline is something that will help also and I can already know where I want to go with my essay. In high school my teachers made us use make an outline before we started any paper so all we had to do when we actually started writing our paper is take exactly what we wrote in the outline and put it in to paragraphs. Thesis statements are also something I struggle with the most. When I did make outlines, before I even gathered thoughts about what my topic was about I would come up with a thesis statement. With the grammatical errors I think that is just because I’m going to fast and I don’t reread my paper carefully. I think rereading my paper would help a lot with all the problems that are in my essays. I will definitely try to do better with that on my future assignments so I won’t get points of for minor mistakes that I could have recognized and changed.

https://docs.google.com/a/odu.edu/document/d/1iXXOv2nrQZ2Ii2ze33adiddBjS462TZerwS5C9ZSyi4/edit?usp=sharing